as the Action of our Machines.

Setting

afide Mathematicks, Policy and Morality, Mechanicks alone decides the Question in Favour of Men.

A

AND indeed this Law peculiar to Humanity, neceffarily flows from the general and univerfal Law of Nature, and is but a Confequence of it; Men being alfo truly a Part, and even the principal Part of it, as may be eafily demonftrated; unless we deny them all Manner of Understanding, or else distribute it equally to all the Beings in Nature; which cannot be maintained nor proved. Thus it is, that in the human Body there is a general Law, which governs the Whole; and from this Law a particular one is derived, for the Government of the Head, which does not fuit all the other Members that depend on it. The Law of the Eye has fcarce any thing in common with the Law of the Hearing, Smelling, and Tafting. Juft fo it is in univerfal Nature.

CHAP.

TH

CHAP. II.

HOUGH Generation be common to all Kinds of Animals, the Sentiments abovementioned, of Hufbands and Wives, Fathers, Children, and Relations, and other Sentiments derived from them, do not at all appear in Beasts, If there be any Traces of them, they are very rare and tranfient; and perhaps they are conftrued fo only by reason of the Affinity they have with the Effects which thofe Sentiments produce in us. It would be a great Mistake to imagine from the Exterior of a little Machine, representing a Coach and Horfes on a full Trot, that it was really drawn by little Animals. 'Tis a moving Image that deceives us, its internal Spring leading our Senfes into a manifeft Equivoque: And whoever should argue from the Motion of this Machine, to prove the Animality of the Horfes, would justly be laughed at.

THE Male among the Beafts does indeed couple with the Female, and makes her conceive,

ceive, but without any View to Pofterity, or to better their Condition, and live more commodioufly. The Difference of Sex does not even appear very diftinctly vifible in all the Species; and if we credit Naturalists, there are many Hermaphrodites among the brute Creation, chiefly among Fishes and Infects; at least, the Number of Females greatly exceed the Males. As foon as their little ones attain to a certain Degree of Strength, they no longer own them. The Fathers and Mothers roughly drive their Children from their Nefts and Dens; and the latter, far from having any Repect, Attachment and Gratitude for those that brought them into the World and nourished them hitherto, are ever ready to fight with them about the least Scrap of Food, and are just as quarrelfome with their Brothers, whom they fear ftill lefs.

THE inftinct observed in divers Species, to feed their young Brood the Moment they are born, is not yet clear enough to make us pofitive, that there is not fomething in it analogous with the Communication of the nutritious Juice in Plants. Whether the Products be inwardly annexed, or detached like Eggs, it

is

is much the fame as the Fruits of Trees: As

-foon as they are ripe, they break loofe, and fall of themselves. All this is fo mechanical in Beafts, that there is no Inftance of an Animal taking Care to feed another of the fame Kind that has had the Misfortune to fpoil the Organs neceffary for procuring Food: It will not take the least Trouble about healing the fick one, but lets it die without Help, without Regret, and without Burial. It must therefore be owned, that the Instinct of Beasts to feed their young ones, does not depend on any inward Reafoning, Faculty or Principle.

.

'I AM not ignorant that there are even fome Authors, who idly dream and infinuate, that all conjugal, paternal, amical, and, in fine, focial Sentiments, are nothing but Effects and Confequences of Education, without which Men would not be more fociable than Beafts; and this they pretend to prove by Inftances of fome Savages, of which they give imaginary Relations. It is juft as wife, as if they drew a fimilar Confequence from a Lunatic living in the Woods like a Beast, who, having found a female Partner, fhould have communicated his Madness to all his Pofterity, as it

happens

happens but too frequently in human Nature. It is not from a few Individuals, that we muft deduce what belongs to the whole" Species. It would be a grofs Miftake to afcribe to Dogs, Monkies and Elephants, what we fee done by fome of them, that are broke to certain Exercises and Tricks, and taught to do Service to Men: It is from the Generality we must argue and form Conclufions; and herein the Error of thofe Authors is glaring at first Sight: By this general Plan we immediately discover the Weakness of their Principles, and the Malignity of their Argu

ments.

If Education, which inclines Men to Society, to true Tenderness and Love for their Wives, Children, Relations and Friends, be the fame every where, it is therefore determined and produced by Nature, which is the fame in all But if this be not true, and that in Spight of a total Difference in Education, the fame Sentiments are manifeft in all inhabited Regions, it must neceffarily follow, that Nature itself inftils and keeps up the fame Sentiments in all Men, whofe Organs are not fubject to fome Disorder. Chufe which Side

of